DJ QU – Conjur [SMR016]

DJ Qu returns with his sophomore album ‘Conjure’ out on Strength Music Recordings. Five years on from the release of his debut album, Gymnastics, Ramon Lisandro Quezada finally serves up a follow-up. ‘Conjure’ is a fine set that neatly showcases the varied sides of the prolific deep house producer’s output. So, we get Iberican tribal drums fused with hazy trumpet solos (“Feed Off Of”), dreamy ambience (“Candlelit”), groovy downtempo beats (the hip-hop influenced “Supafly”), sumptuous and sensual dancefloor deepness (“Lotus (In Memory Of)”), and dark, intense, occasionally dubbed-out late night business (“Whistle Song”, “Visitation”, the stripped-back hip-house of “Toc”). There’s little in the way of filler or fluff, and plenty of playable, club-ready material.

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DJ QU – Conjur [SMR016]

Identified Patient – The Female Medical College Of Pennsylvania [COMMONTHREAD006]

This one is dedicated to The Female Medical College Of Pennsylvania. Identified Patient is Identified but yet unknown. Machinedrums not Machineguns.

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Identified Patient – The Female Medical College Of Pennsylvania [COMMONTHREAD006]

Robert Crash – Edonism [DIN012]

Dog in the Night staple Robert Crash gets back at it with a new EP of house madness. The Italian producer once again shows us why he’s the boss, clocking in with another four tracks of acid fueled beaters. Off kilter beat tracks that are sure to get the tweakers in a frenzy, this is what house is and should be.

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Robert Crash – Edonism [DIN012]

The Exaltics / Umwelt – Rave Or Die 6 [ROD06]

On this installment of the long running Rave Or Die series, ever-present producer Umwelt is joined by prolific, mask-wearing techno misfits The Exaltics. It’s the latter, a German twosome headed up by Robert Witschakowski, who strike first, layering up bubbly electronics, hard-wired acid lines, muscular beats and spacey chords on the sweaty techno/electro hybrid “Endless Journey”. Umwelt goes a little deeper and moodier on flipside “Delusive Reality”. While the acid lines are sharp and occasionally intense, he contrasts them with bittersweet pads, yearning melodies and a pulsating rhythm track full of relentless kick drums, crunchy snares and hissing cymbals.

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The Exaltics / Umwelt – Rave Or Die 6 [ROD06]

Templeyard Studios – Messages From A Better Destiny [EVR021]

Echovolt expands its remit with the launch of a new series of mini-albums with the first edition coming from Templeyard Studios, a recently formed project of Berlin-based Greek artists Miltiades and Goolyk. Met for the first time in Berlin in 2014 and pretty soon started sharing sonic ideas and researching how they could affect the human brain, using hardware sound equipment.

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Templeyard Studios – Messages From A Better Destiny [EVR021]

Gene Hunt – EP [PND013]

Official from re-edition done by Phil Weeks & Didier Allyne from Gene Hunt with released on Svek in 1996 Jazzy: Synth riffs with 808 bass drums. Get Freaky oldschool feel and toughen the tune into techno status like Robert Amarni Style.The Man: Candido sample like old moodymann house track.

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Gene Hunt – EP [PND013]

Mark Du Mosch – The Red Hour [PNKMN016]

Burbling basslines. Hissing hi-hats. Snapping snares. Soulful synths. Streams of machine currents meander and merge in The Red Hour, Mark Du Mosch’s debut EP for Pinkman. Four cuts of compelling and complex electronics, each track offering a different side of Du Mosch’s sound. Textured techno from the margins.

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Mark Du Mosch – The Red Hour [PNKMN016]

214 – I See What You Did There [SSPS003]

Following his acclaimed North Bend album of 2015, Chris Roman, known as 214, is back on Shipwrec with the third in their series of single sided odysseys. A haze of bass descends for “I See What You Did There”, a clipped drizzle of percussion falls before thick acid bars tremble into position. Echoes, reverb and decay merge, groan and bend as the preconceptions of ambient, electro and techno are pulled apart. In one breath dense and complex, the next grooving and future funk dipped. An epic example of 214’s talent. Single sided 12″ with a silkscreen printed B side.

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214 – I See What You Did There [SSPS003]

Norwell – Death Of A Star [PNKMN014]

Pinkman cast their net eastwards. The latest finding, Hungary’s Norwell, offers up four genre splicing cuts. Rhythms are from the golden age of electro, cold and prototypical. Around these sharp percussion patterns swirl a wealth of melting synthlines. Pads, deep basslines and a ghosting presence characterise the title track, that same spectral mood weaves its way through the sweetened strings and distorted judders of “Dissonant Division.” The frigid bars of “Nordic Nights” introduces the flip, arctic winds pierced by snapping snares. Emotional depth ebbs and flows as the rich and textured “Wasted Echoes” brings down the curtain on Norwell’s Pinkman debut.

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Norwell – Death Of A Star [PNKMN014]

DimDJ – DimDJ TH04 [TH004]

DimDj has no control over his life. Machines, records and noise boxes took over years ago. This is more than confirmed by this 5-track journey from acid techno to the old-school electro and further to Kuno’s dystopia, who delivers a complete acidic rework over PTN1.

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DimDJ – DimDJ TH04 [TH004]

Dexter St. Jacques – Ancient Way of Knowing [SEQ013]

Solo outings from Africans With Mainframes member Noleian Reusse are relatively rare. Here he dons a brand new alias, the Eddie Murphy-referencing Dexter St Jacques, and sets off on a techno trip into the ether. Opener “Laamb” [sic] is a curious but alluring beast, with undulating synthesizer and acid lines riding a fizzing, almost bubbly drum machine rhythm. It feels like electronic jazz with techno drums, yet it’s not overtly jazzy. There’s a similar feel about the more distorted “Temporal Understanding”, where rising and falling melodies lines and winding electronics compete for attention over a hissing drum machine groove.

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Dexter St. Jacques – Ancient Way of Knowing [SEQ013]

Konstantin Tschechow – Alpha Omega [RAT008]

Little is known about Konstantin Tschechow, the first and last time we met was around the turn of the millennium in the small city of Koenigsbrueck in the far east of Germany. It was during one of my regular night strolls through the countryside, when I ran into him accidentally. He was standing there in the middle of nowhere leaning on the fence of a train yard where he was, as he said “recording silence”. I found that very interesting and we got to talk to each other. After a long conversation about everybody and his dog we found out that we were both Grandsons of Afrika Bambaataa. We planned to hang out more often so we exchanged phone numbers and he gave me a CDR with some of his recordings before he disappeared. A couple of weeks later I called him up to ask if we could meet, but he told me that he had to leave the country because the local authorities found out that he illegally immigrated from Aldebaran. Before I could say “to hell with this fascist state!!!” the connection was interrupted. I tried to call again, but he must have dumped his phone to make sure nobody could track him down. That was the last time I ever heard from him. A few years ago, there were rumors of him being the sound man for reincarnated John Lennon on various tours around Galaxy Mt23, unfortunately I could never afford tickets to find out. One lucky day in 2015 I found the CDR that he gave me on our first and only meeting ever. I discovered 5 tracks and instructions to release them in the year 2016 during a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse.

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Konstantin Tschechow – Alpha Omega [RAT008]